Hot foiled florals and stencilled background

 Hello fellow crafters

Today I am sharing a card using two great techniques that I combined on the card and that I really enjoyed. 

I combined vibrant florals by Altenew which I foiled with the hot foil plate and coloured with co-ordinating stencil set. I used different shades from the Studio Light teardrop ink pads in the pink shades. I cut the foiled image out using Judikens detailed scissors.

The background was heat-embossed using a Pinkfresh plaid stamp and coloured using the co-ordinating stencil set and Distress ink pads. The Studio Light large blending brushes were great for the background. I used Altenew mini blending brushes for the flowers.

 

Happy crafting, until next time.

Marie Smith

How to stretch your supplies for unique effects - Embossing folder and stamping foam

 Hello, fellow crafters

Today I an sharing a project created with Studio Light products, to show you how to stretch your supplies for unique effects.

It is my first time using stamping foam and I love how easy it is to use and to create elements for your cards that co-ordinate with each other.

To create the focal point, have your embossing folder open. Attach a circle piece of stamping foam to an acrylic block with repositionable glue. Heat a circle stamping foam for 10 to 15 seconds. Firmly but evenly press the stamping foam onto the embossing folder on the side that has the flowers raised.

Use Studio Light ink pads in shades of yellow to drag over the embossed stamping foam from light to dark. from about 20 - 25 cm lightly spritz over the inked foam to moisten the inks a bit. Stamp onto heavy white cardstock. Below you can see how I experimented the technique before deciding what to do with a card.

 

 

Cut the stamped image out with a circle die. Adhere to a circle of cardstock in a co-ordinating color.

 

Ink the inside of the embossing folder with a colour on the opposite of the colour wheel than your stamped image. I used Versamagic green oasis. Lightly spritz the inked side with water - only a little; not to wet. Insert heavy cardstock into the embossing folder and lightly spritz tey cardstock, to break the tension in the paper and get a better embossed effect. roll through your die0cussing machine, using the recommended stack of plates.

 

Remove and cut the coloured embossed cardstock to 13,5 x 13,5 cm. Adhere this to a piece of cardstock 14 x 14 cm. Adhere this to a 14,5 square cardbase.

 

Add a sentiment to your card. I sued one from a Creative Expressions Wordies set.

I hop you are going to try this technique. If you do, please shere your project below in the comments.

All products are available in our online store.

Thank you for popping in. 

Happy crafting, until next time.

Marie Smith

 

 

In the garden - mixed media card

 Hello, fellow crafters

I love my garden (mostly evergreen with a pop of colour here and there) and I love arum lilies (also called calla lilies). Today I am sharing a card featuring pink arum lilies.

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 This pretty Studio Light stamp has been sitting on my desk for quite some time, waiting for inspiration to do it justice. I knew I wanted to create a water-colour effect and a journal-style background. But don't be intimidated (I know many crafters feel intimidated by watercolour techniques - no watercolouring here. I used an ink squishing technique that I developed recently with heat-embossed images.

What I often do while waiting for the final inspiration to use a specific product, is to put the things I think I could use out on a side table next to my main desk. In time, ideas grow and then I know what I want to do. This card was finally inspired by the prompt on the Ujabule Art Journalling Facebook page: In the garden.

The process I followed was as follows:

1.  Masked the edges of a 13x13cm piece of watercolour paper with washi tape.

2. Brayered Distress Oxide salvaged patina to cover the unmasked square.

3. Brayered a small amount of Distress Oxide seedless preserves.

4. Splattered water onto the inked paper and allowed it to sit a few minutes before blotting the drops with a paper towel.

5. Heat-embossed the Studio Light calla lily stamp with white embossing powder onto watercolour paper.

6. Dabbed seedless grape and mowed lawn Distress oxide inks onto my glass mat and spritzed with water, to form watercolour ink. 

7. Roughly cut out the heat-embossed image and pressed it face down into the watercolour inks, with the flowers more or less in the seedless grapes and stems and leaves more or less on the green mowed lawn. When the image was dry, I used my finger to add more pink and green on selected parts of the image, for more intense colour in the centres of the flowers and on some parts of the leaves. Cut out, close to the edges of the image, with detail scissors.

8. Used seedless grape and salvaged patina inks to stencil in the background, using the Studio Light mask Birds and twigs.

9. Stamped some borders left, right and at the bottom, to "ground" my image.

10. Adhered the calla lily image with dimensional tape.

I hope you enjoyed your short visit.

Happy crafting, until next time.

Marie Smith

Nativity card

 Hello fellow crafters

For today’s card,  I used the Crafters Companion Bethlehem die set. The elements were die-cut from our heavy curious metal cardstock for the lovely effect. They were mounted onto a navy square, which had been mounted on a silver mirror cardstock square. Both these squares were cut out with Nellies stiched square dies.

The stars were stencilled with Cosmic Shimmer frosty sparkle paste, using our PM-S001 stencil.

Get the supplies from our online store.

Happy crafting, until next time.

Marie Smith

Wildflower field

Hello fellow crafters.

Today I am sharing a card on which I  used the Studio Light decorative leaves die set.

I wanted to create an informal effect so I decided to colour the leaves and flowers with brush pens for a watercoloured effect.

The elements were die-cut from watercolour paper.

I used brush pens to loosely apply only a little colour. For the stems, for example, I applied lime. I then sprayed generously with water before applying moss.

Orange and purple were used to colour the flowers in the same manner.

I used the Studio Light flower silhouette embossing folder to create a background. This piece of cardstock was distressed around the edges and layered onto lime green cardstock of which the edges were also distressed before adhering it to the card base.

Stems and flowers were arranged informally.

I hope you enjoyed this post.

Happy crafting, until next time.

Marie Smith

 

Christmas is better when we are together

 Hello, friends

When last did you use your washi tapes, or try some of the fabulous new, wide tapes?

 Today I want to share a card demonstrating the amazing results with washi tape for Christmas card, when you have pretty washi tapes at hand.

The moment I laid my eyes on the pretty box 49 and Market holiday wishes washi tape set, i just KNEW I had to make cards and offer a class on using these. 

 

 

 

Naturally, I had to use one of my favorite nested die sets by Studio Light. (I have used this set in many ways on cards.)

 

This card with the heart aperture is one of the samples I made when preparing for the class.

 Materials and tools required:

 A4 smooth white cardstock, 24gsm

Gold mirror cardstock

All-purpose gold ink (or gold alcohol ink)

Splatter brush 

Black ink pad

Studio Light nested 6 die set

49 and Market holiday wishes washi tape set

Scoreboard and scoring tool

die0cutting machine with 15cm (6 inch)-wide platform

Art Glitter dries clear glue

Crafters Companion Merry Christmas stamp-and-die set

To make the card

Prepare a card base by scoring the A4 cardstock in half on the 297mm side. Fold and trim to make a square card base of 14,5x14,5 cm.

Use the gold ink and splatter brush and splatter ink on the card front (I made a top-fold tent card).

Open the card base and use heart-shaped die third when counting from the largest to cut an aperture (opening) in the centre of the card.

Stamp the sentiment "is better when we are together" from the stamp set at the bottom of the card, using black ink pad.

Use the 2nd and 3rd sizes of heart dies to cut a heart frame from the gold mirror cardstock.

Cut the Christmas sentiment from the stamp-and-die-set from gold mirror cardstock.

Adhere the die-cut heart and sentiment to the front of the card., using dries clear glue. The heart should "frame" the aperture.

Use a pencil to lightly trace the outline of the heart aperture on the inside of the card. 

Open the card. adhere a strip of the poinsettia washing tape across the width of the card, to cover the pencil outline. add a strip of the narrow chevron washi tape to the top and to the bottom of the wide washi tape.

Adhere the two hearts that were cut out to embellish the inside of the card.

I hope you love this card, and will make some for your loved ones.

Happy crafting, until next time.

Marie Smith

The great outdoors

 I recently hosted a workshop on creating cards with an outdoors theme, using the latest release by Fabscraps - C141 The great outdoors.

This paper collection features the most interesting textures and images for a range of outdoors interests and activities, including fishing, hiking, 4-wheel drive adventures, bird watching and camping.

Attendees were advised to decide on a theme for their cards and then group the fussy-cut elements according to that.

They learned three techniques for making embellishments by imprinting with rubber stamps into layers of hot ultra-thick embossing powder. The technique we used was to first dab embossing ink onto a piece of torn greyboard and adding a layer of ultra-thick embossing powder onto that. After it was heated with a heat tool to melt completely, another layer of embossing powder was added and heated. While that is still hot, press a rubber stamp with a botanical theme into the embossing powder and hold it for a few seconds. Use wax to add some colour and highlights - the result is a patina look. 

The second technique to create embellishments, was to paint metal charms with black gesso and, when dry, to add colour and highlights, using wax.

The third technique for making embellishments, is to adhere kitchen foil to cardstock and then die cut leaves using a die that shows veins on the leaves. After cutting out, add some alcohol  inks for colour.

Thank you for popping in.

Happy crafting, until next time.

Marie Smith